Coil telephone anti-jimmy cabinet

ABSTRACT

This coin-operated apparatus, notably a coin telephone set, has its usual operating equipment enclosed in a cabinet to which the coin box is secured from underneath, so that the coin chute can direct the coins or checks to be cashed to a position overlying the inlet orifice of the coin box. The joint plane between said cabinet and said coin-box is protected on all its external sides by a plate of relatively tough metal having a notch formed in its portion underlying the cabinet, so as to protect the joint against tampering and like breaking actions directed against the coin box, said plate being also adapted to act as a tray or support for the user&#39;&#39;s convenience. However, this invention is also applicable to all apparatus of this character having a separate cash-box.

United States Patent [191 de Crepy [451 Oct. 7, 1975 [54] COIN TELEPHONE ANTI-JIMMY CABINET [75] Inventor: Edouard de Crepy, Paris, France 22 Filed: Apr. 8, 1974 21 1. Appl. No.: 459,076

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 9, 1973 France 73.12678 [52] US. Cl 194/1 B; 70/418; 232/432; 194/1 T [51] Int. Cl? G07F 9/00 [58] Field of Search 194/1 A, 1 B, 1 D, 1 F, 194/1 R; 232/432, 57.5; 49/483; 70/418;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,048,810 7/1936 Patche 70/418 2,075,989 4/1937 Jonneret et a1. 194/1 D 2,268,096 12/1941 Von Keller 194/1 C 2,691,484 10/1954 Hoyt 232/575 3,239,046 3/1966 McGoldrick 194/1 B FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 823,990 9/1969 Canada 194/1 F Primary ExaminerRobert B. Reeves Assistant ExaminerH. Grant Skaggs, Jr.

[5 7] ABSTRACT This coin-operated apparatus, notably a coin telephone set, has its usual operating equipment enclosed in a cabinet to which the coin box is secured from underneath, so that the coin chute can direct the coins or checks to be cashed to a position overlying the inlet orifice of the coin box. The joint plane between said cabinet and said coin-box is protected on all its external sides by a plate of relatively tough metal having a notch formed in its portion underlying the cabinet, so as to protect the joint against tampering and like breaking actions directed against the coin box, said plate being also adapted to act as a tray or support for the users convenience. However, this invention is also applicable to all apparatus of this character having a separate cash-box.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures US. Patent Oct. 7,1975 Sheet 1 of 3 3,910,393

US. Patent Oct. 7,1975 Sheet2 0f3 3,910,393

COIN TELEPHONE ANTI-JIMMY CABINET FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a coin-operated apparatus, and has specific reference to a public call-box telephone set.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION All coin-operated apparatus put at the publics disposal, notably public telephone sets or call-boxes, are exposed tovery many attempts to break them with a view to steal the coin-box content. If, since in most hitherto proposed and constructed public call-boxes the cash-box is incorporated in the single cabinet or housing enclosing the complete set, any attempt to break same, even if directed only to the cash-box, causes generally very serious damages to the telephone set proper. Therefore, a known proposition consisted in providing a coin telephone set for public call-boxes which comprises on the one hand a cabinet or housing enclosing the complete telephone set and on the other hand a coin-box separate from the cabinet, these two containers being secured in superposed relationship to each other, for example to a common support sealed to the wall; in this case, some means must be provided for guiding the coins or checks falling from the lower end of a chute disposed within the cabinet towards the inlet aperture formed in the top wall of the coin-box, for example in the form of a guide tube. Whatever their specific form of embodiment, these guide-means intended for coupling the cash box to the coin collector provided within the cabinet constitute the weak point of the complete set; though with this arrangement the burglars tampering efforts are concentrated more particularly to the coin-box, these attempts, whether successful or not, do not result in general in serious damages to the telephone set proper, which would be considerably more expensive than the looting of the coin-box, no efficient protection is obtained for the coin-box itself, which can be removed from its support with greater facility inasmuch as it is no more connected to the main body of the apparatus, except through said guide means having a relatively low mechanical strength.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The pre-payment or coin-operated apparatus, notably the coin telephone set, according to the present invention comprises likewise a cabinet or housing enclosing the complete and conventional station equipment, and a coin-box, mounted in superposed relationship, preferably to a common wall support, the coins or checks falling from the lower end of a chute disposed within said cabinet into the inlet orifice formed in the top wall of the coin-box, however, the coin-operated apparatus, notably a coin telephone set, according to the present invention is constructed with a view to ensure a reliable protection against unlawful attempts to open or break the coin-box, independent of the cabinet enclosing the telephone equipment.

The coin-operated apparatus, notably the coin telephone set, according to this invention is of the abovedefined type and characterised in that the bottom face of the cabinet and the top face of the coin-box are very close to each other, and that their joint plane or interface is protected from all external sides by at least one belt of high-strength metal capable of resistingthe insertion of a breaking tool into the aforesaid joint.

In a preferred form of embodiment of the apparatus according to this invention, the above-mentioned metal belt consists of a high-strength metal plate or tray projecting preferably from all the external sides of the cabinet, substantially at the level of its joint plane with the cash or coin-box, said metal plate comprising at least one notch or cavity permitting the free fall of coins or checks into the inlet orifice of the coin-box; since the top surface of said projecting plate can act as a rest or support, this form of embodiment is particularly advantageous in the case of a coin telephone set, inasmuch as it facilitates the use of the apparatus; in fact, this plate thus incorporated in the complete assembly is substituted for those affixed in many cases to these apparatus for either supporting the users personal belongings or acting as a small writing desks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

Atypical form of embodiment of a coin telephone set constructed according to the teachings of this invention will now be described and illustrated with reference to the attached drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of this typical embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a front view thereof, with a part broken away, and

FIG. 3 is a plane view showing on a larger scale the plate equipping the coin telephone set illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The coin telephone set illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing comprises primarily a cabinet or housing 1 made of two sections, i.e. a rear or wall section la and a front section 1b; the wall section 1a is secured by means of screws (not shown) to a wall support consisting in turn of a strong metal plate 2 sealed to the wall proper, as shown in FIG. 1; this wall element 1a of cabinet 1 encloses the complete telephone equipment, i.e. not only the various telephone component elements (except the conventional dial 3), but also all the mechanical equipment, and possibly the electromechanical equipment, necessary for accepting the coins introduced into the slot 4 (FIG. 2), so as to sort them for either cashing the legitimate coins or reject slugs or spurious coins; of these last-mentioned means, the partially broken portion of FIG. 2 illustrates diagrammatically only the chutes 5a and 5b for directing the slugs or spurious coins, on the one hand, and the legitimate coins, not accepted by the apparatus, on the other hand, respectively, into a single refunding pan 6, and also a chute 7 for the coins or checks to be cashed, this last-mentioned chute 7 having its lower orifice or outlet level with the bottom of cabinet section la. The front, open side of this section la is closed by a cover or hood lb of which the front face carries only the aforesaid conventional dial 3 and the coin slot 4; the means (not shown) for fastening this section lb to section la may be of any desired and suitable type, and adapted to be locked by means of a safety lock (not shown).

The reference numeral 8 designates a coin-box having a parallelipipedic configuration in the example illustrated. This box is closed completely and its top wall comprises a relatively narrow inlet orifice 9 disposed just above the lower outlet of chute 7. The rear side of box 8 is secured for example'by means of screws (not visible) to the lower portion of the wall plate 2, so that the top face of box 8 be very close to, or even substantially in direct contact with, the bottom face of cabinet 1.

A plate of a high-tensile strength metal is so shaped and disposed that it projects from all the external sides of cabinet 1, substantially at the level, of the joint plane or interface between the bottom face of said cabinet 1 and the top face of coin box 8. In the form of embodiment contemplated herein the plate 10 is hollow and consists of relatively thick and tough sheetmetal elements such as 10a, I01) and IOC (FIG. 2).bent or preferably assembled by welding or rivetting, notably by using blind rivets not accessible from the exterior of plate 10, so as to constitute a three-sided frame A, B, C (FIG. 3); the outer lateral sides B and C of this frame comprise each internally, at the level of the bottom sheet-metal element 1012, a metal angle member 118 or 11C adapted, when fitting the complete plate 10 in position, to slide while contacting the lower lateral edges of cabinet 1, as shown in FIG. 2. When the plate 10 is engaged home, i.e. with the rear edges 12B and 12C of its two lateral sides B and C contacting the wall supporting the cabinet 1, the plate 10 is secured to the cabinet 1 by means of bolts such as 13 (FIG. 2) engaging holes 14 formed in said angle members 118 and 11C; of course, this operation cannot be performed unless the front cover or hood lb is removed fromthe. cabinet 1.

.In the form of embodiment contemplated herein, a relatively thick metal bar 15 is secured externally to the bottom plate element 10b of plate 10 so as to surround the three outer. sides of the joint formed between the top wall of box 8 and the bottom wall. of plate 10.

On the other hand, the coin refund pan 6 is housed within the cabinet 1 so that its open to lies well above the top face of plate 10; with this arrangement, when the user of the telephone set introduces his hand into the pan 6 by causing the pivoted shutter 6a thereof to tilt inward of the apparatus, he can transfer very rapidly the coins or other checks to be recovered from the aforesaid pan 6 to the top face of the portion of said plate 10 which registers with said shutter 6a, thus facilitating greatly this Yefunding operation and safely preventing the user from dropping some of the coins or checks in case these were not properly gripped with his fingers.

Many modifications and variations may be brought to the above-described coin telephone set without departing from the basic principles of the invention. Thus, the plate 10 may project from only one or two of the three external sides of cabinet 1; in addition, the use of a reinforcing metal bar 15 is optional; furthermore, the plate 10 may also be so disposed thatits upper and lower faces lie above and below, respectively, the joint plane between the coin box 8 and the upper cabinet 1; besides, the plate 8 may also consist of a solid or suitably sectioned plate closing completelythe lower or bottom face of cabinet 1, this solid or suitably sectioned plate comprising only aslot permitting the fall of the coins or checks through the inlet slot formed in the top of coin box 8; in this case, a reinforcing bar such as 15 may be provided on the top surface of the. plate 10. The'means for securing the plate to the lower, edges of the cabinet 1 are a matter of choice.

Finally, so far as the above-described plate, .10provides the advantageous features also mentioned in the foregoing, essentially because it constitutes a kind of belt, on all external sides, surrounding the joint between the cabinet 1 and coin box 8, it is also within the scope of this invention to protect s'aid joint from all its external sides by means of at least one belt member of tough metal, which does not project from the general configuration of the assembly and therefore cannot be used as a tray; however, this last form of embodiment.

is less advantageous than the one described before with reference to the attached drawings.

What is claimed as new is:

1., Coin-operated apparatus comprising a cabinet enclosing the complete equipment and having a lock, and a coin-box, said cabinet and coin-box being secured in superposed relationship to each other to a common wall support, said coin-box having an inlet orifice formed in its top face, a chute disposed within said cabinet so that coins fall from the lower, end of said chute into said inlet orifice, the lower face of said cabinet and breaking tool into the corresponding jointplane said metal belt projecting from three outer sides of said cab-.

inet and. being substantially atithe level of the joint plane, and comprisingat least one free space permitting the fall of coins into the inlet orifice of said box,

the top face of said plate being adapted to act as a tray facilitating the use of the apparatus, said plate being hollow and consisting of relatively thick sheet-metal elements constituting a frame having only three sides, and the two lateral sides of said frame comprising internal means for detachably fastening said frame to the lower lateral edgesof the cabinet of the apparatus, said fastening means being accessible only from within said cabinet, after opening said lock. 

1. Coin-operated apparatus comprising a cabinet enclosing the complete equipment and having a lock, and a coin-box, said cabinet and coin-box being secured in superposed relationship to each other to a common wall support, said coin-box having an inlet orifice formed in its top face, a chute disposed within said cabinet so that coins fall from the lower end of said chute into said inlet orifice, the lower face of said cabinet and the top face of said box being relatively close to each other and having their joint plane protected from all external sides by at least one belt plate of high tensile strength metal counteracting any attempt to insert a breaking tool into the corresponding joint plane said metal belt projecting from three outer sides of said cabinet and being substantially at the level of the joint plane, and comprising at least one free space permitting the fall of coins into the inlet orifice of said box, the top face of said plate being adapted to act as a tray facilitating the use of the apparatus, said plate being hollow and consisting of relatively thick sheet-metal elements constituting a frame having only three sides, and the two lateral sides of said frame comprising internal means for detachably fastening said frame to the lower lateral edges of the cabinet of the apparatus, said fastening means being accessible only from within said cabinet, after opening said lock. 